2.29.2012

How cool would it be to be born today? I think it would be pretty neat and an interesting fact. Next baby should be planned for the end of February in 4 years :) lol. It looked so pretty today while it was snowing, so I decided to get out the camera and walk to the mail box to retrieve the junk mail.

Scribbles trying to figure out if the sky is falling...

Nutmeg loves the snow and playing in it

Caught her in mid run

Oh and I actually had butter & eggs today so I made the "Diet Pepsi Cookies" I wanted to make yesterday. I will post the recipe tomorrow hopefully. I made some adjustments to the original, so I will share the original and my version. Tim said they are delicious :)

I saw an article yesterday about Tropical Storm Irene and how it has been six months since the storm that soaked our region of Upstate NY. This made me realize it has been six months since I had my Lasik Eye surgery. This is me 6 months ago..

AHHHH Scary! My eyes were so red for approximately a week afterwards. It was a little painful, but the first morning I could see the time on the alarm clock clearly I was so happy I did it! I love being able to get out of bed and not have to worry about glasses or contacts. I can take naps easier now because I am not worried about my eyes being dry when I wake up. And the best part? It is all paid off! I had a year, but I had it all paid by the end of 2011 :) WAHOO! Definitely worth the investment!

Me now :) no contacts or glasses!

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I have today off from work and I am taking advantage of it :) I actually took a break from cleaning to write this blog entry. I was getting ready to vacuum and noticed something in the guest room closet that did not belong in there and I have been cleaning out the closet in there and the closet in the office. The guest room is finally being cleaned out to make room for Baby.

There is a winter storm predicted for today - It is snowing now and I cannot wait to get pictures tomorrow morning or later on today. It has not really with accumulation since 2011. This is definitely a strange winter.

Ok, time for me to get back to cleaning! I am planning on getting on the treadmill for an hour or so too. I have last night's Biggest Loser to watch still.

2.28.2012

I knew it would come sooner or later, but I was hoping for a little later. I am a total tummy sleeper and now it is uncomfortable. I have been sleeping on my back the last week or so, but that will come to an end at some point. Ugh... To top it all off I still have not gotten a new pillow since this incident..

I am currently sleeping with a flat pillow :/ Don't worry it will be taken care of this weekend. Tim and I have a date on Saturday night :) The plan is to go to dinner, get me a new pillow, and hopefully start our baby registries. I have been very busy comparing different products, checking reviews, looking at lists of the must haves, etc... Phew it can be a little overwhelming, but I am taking it one step at a time.

I will be 19 weeks on Thursday and I am feeling more pregnant every morning when I wake up. I was not feeling pregnant at all until I was about 16 weeks. Now I definitely know that there is a tiny human growing inside of me :)

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Today I was very excited to try a new recipe I found on The Today Show online. I got all the ingredients and realized I did not have butter, but I found crisco so I figured I would substitute. Then I went to get an egg out to let it get to room temperature and guess what? We have no eggs in the house!
I usually have a dozen eggs in the fridge at all times, I guess I have been slacking Oops :/ I still wanted to make something for dessert tonight so I did mini chocolate pies :)

There will be whipped cream put on top when they are ready to be served :) Yummy. Oh look what came out of the basement... the Easter decorations :) I love spring and I wanted to get my decorations out for Easter yesterday. I did and I feel happier now.
I will be going to the store tonight and doing my coupon/grocery shopping. Eggs and butter are definitely on the list. I still want to try this new cookie recipe with my airbake pans I got for Christmas that still have the wrap on them.

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On a different note, my thoughts and prayers go out to the Ohio families involved in the school shootings. What a terrible story. I just read that the 3rd teenager died as a result of the incident.

I have a few questions today:

Are there baby products or mommy-to-be products that you recommend? Anything I should stay away from?

2.27.2012

Friday night Tim and I were driving along and I thought I felt something. I had thought I felt butterfly like movements earlier in the day, but this was a little different. I mentioned it to Tim and he said "Oh I hope he is not in there fighting with something like Stewie was on Family Guy". Thanks Dear :) Yes he did say "he". He keeps calling the baby Sherman for some unknown reason and saying "he" when he talks about the little one. He is cute though ;)
I was a little bummed when I did not feel anything again for the rest of the weekend. I thought that once you felt something you kept feeling things. Then I was sitting at work last night and I felt something weird in my lower abdominal area. There is no doubt in my mind that it was the baby. It was the strangest feeling, but amazing at the same time.

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I have an itch I cannot scratch :( I really want to go somewhere warm with blue skies and blue waters. I am sick of the cold and I want to get away for a long weekend, but that is not going to happen. I have never been to a place with blue waters and I feel like it will be a while before I ever get to a place like that. We are going to D.C. in April so I am looking forward to that.

2.23.2012

Today marks 18 weeks along. I feel great, now. At work a little after midnight last night I got sick. It was the worst case of "morning sickness" I have had in this pregnancy. I feel fine now so it must have just been something that did not agree with my tummy. I read that at 18 weeks the baby is about the size of a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, that was interesting and it also made me want a pint of Ben & Jerry's :)

Yesterday I was craving soft serve ice cream like there was no tomorrow! On Facebook I asked friends where I could get soft serve this time of year and a co-worker named and place and I really wanted to go. My door bell rang a few hours later and there was my cousin Mel and my god-daughter with a soft serve ice cream for me :) I was a very happy girl!

At my doctors appointment this week she wanted to see my baby bump and I told her that there was nothing there yet, it was still just my belly from before. She made me feel great when she told me that I did have a baby bump and that "belly" was not there at my last visit, I had lost it during the weight loss. I guess I did not realize it. I was very happy, it is not a big bump, but I like that it is the baby and not just me needing to lose more weight.

2.21.2012

We just had a delicious dinner that I just had to share! I found the recipe on this great blog about food. I have made a few things from her blog and they are all easy to make and turn out tasting great. For the recipe you can go here. It is Slow Cooked Whole Chicken and Vegetables. The only thing I did different was I put some Rosemary on the chicken along with everything else.

Today at noon...

Today at 5:30 - YUMMY

The meat was so tender and was falling of the bone. We had a lot left over for lunches this week.

Remember my pillow? Yea the one the dog ate a few weeks ago and then the second one she ate this week? Yea well I still have not replaced it, but last night while I was at work Tim went to go to bed and found Nutmeg and Scribbles on the bed. Scribbles was caught with her arm inside the comforter that Nutmeg at ripped open pulling out stuffing. They are now a team so we will have to watch them closer... eek! Why is Nutmeg doing this? Can she sense this big change coming? We talk to her about it, but who knows if she understands us. We have not been leaving her alone for long periods, nothing out of the ordinary. She is currently passed out on the couch looking so innocent.

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I had a doctor's appointment with my regular doctor. In November when I went for my blood pressure/weight loss check up she said that she wanted to see me in three months to check on the weight loss, but mainly to see if I was pregnant. She was excited and told me I was in excellent health. She was also really helpful with some exercises for the pregnancy. She even looked up you tube videos for ball exercises. My blood pressure today was perfect -126/78 I believe. She was happy with my progress. I have gained 4 lbs since my last visit there in November. Not bad, she also told me to stay hydrated - it will help with the stretch marks.

When I got home I looked up some of the ball exercises online. I found this website and printed out the 7 exercises they listed and gave them a try. I could definitely feel my abs and arms working. I enjoyed it. We have had the ball for a while and I never seem to use it. Tim was glad it was finally going to be used.
I also found this video:

I will have to try some of these as well. I did get my walk in today on top of trying the ball stuff. I walked 2.5 miles at 3.4 mph and .3 miles at 2.5 mph. I am definitely trying to work in that cool down. It does seem to help slow me down and relax me before I stop completely. The only issue I had was when I had to get off the treadmill to get a wad of tissues away from the cat! She pulled out a whole bunch out of the box when I was not paying attention and I caught here with them all in her mouth walking away. No wonder my house looks like a blizzard some days. Any suggestions for other excercises while pregnant?

2.20.2012

Whoa! 3 posts in one day :)
I just had to share why I am feeling so good right now. I just finished 3.7 miles on the treadmill in 65 minutes. I did .3 miles at the end for a cool down. I have been trying to do a cool down period since I found out I was pregnant. I also try not to go over 3.4 miles per hour. I do not want to get my heart rate too high while walking. But I do not let myself walk less than 2.5 miles at a time.

Today I felt like I could have gone further, but it was time to get ready to go to work. Just wanted to share my accomplishment and great feeling today :)

I woke up today to a beam of light sneaking through the curtains. I got up, looked outside and was happy to see the sun shining. It snowed here in Upstate NY on Saturday night and now there is not sign of the snow. With the lack of snow and the sun shining I am very ready for warmer weather. Spring needs to hurry up and get here.

Today is my "Friday," I am working 4-12 then I have 2 days off :) Tomorrow I plan on making a delicious Crockpot meal. I cannot wait. I will share with you tomorrow. We were digging through the freezer the other day and found a small chicken in there, then I saw that a blog I follow had a recipe posted recently for a Chicken dinner - Yummy. Maybe I will have an audience when I make dinner tomorrow night like I did the other night...

I have no idea why he was on the floor but Scribble was loving it. She kept swatting him in the head. Poor Nutmeg was laying a distance away looking on like she was not invited.

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HAVE YOU SEEN GAS PRICES LATELY!!! I was just watching the noon news and saw that gas prices have risen like crazy in the last few weeks. They are predicting gas prices to be as high as $4.25 by April 2012 and $5.00 by Memorial Day. That is crazy! How will we do anything this summer? I guess I will tell Tim to start seriously looking for a car to drive back and forth to work for him. It is crazy that gas prices are climbing like this.

Time for me to get on the treadmill and then get ready for work... Check out my last blog post! Yup that is right I did 2 today :)

Anything going on in the country that you don't understand? Like gas prices for me.

Does anyone else watch the history channel on holidays like this because the United States History is fascinating? I feel like a nerd lol

So I decided that because Tim does not really believe in Valentine's Day I would not spend a lot of money and just make him something. I have been slightly addicted to Pinterest in the last month or so and I found this project on there. It seemed like a great idea and easy to make. I went on the hunt for a spare deck of cards... I did not find one here at home so when I was at my mom's house I may have taken a deck of cards she had. (Hi Mom thanks for the deck of cards :o) )

I found several versions of this project online and one of them suggested using sandpaper on the cards to give them a vintage look. I liked that idea so I used sandpaper on the front and back of these cards. I did not really know what I thought of the look, but Tim asked where I got the old cards. I decided not to do the printed squares for each card. I went to Target and found sticky labels - 100 for $0.97 - so I grabbed those. I also found the metal rings I needed to keep the deck together for $2.00 - the package came with 4 different sizes which was good because the size I thought I needed was too big and I ended up using a smaller one.

The hole punching was pretty easy. I used one of the spare cards to make a template and then did one at a time lined up with the spare. It was the easiest way for me to do it. When I started the 52 reasons I was amazed at how easy they came. I thought of all the little things I loved about Tim and the big things. It was fun to do come up with them and it was interesting to see him read them.

I was happy with the end product and it was really easy to do. I gave him these and some chocolates and 2 monkeys :)

2.15.2012

Good Morning All! It is a little cloudy here today, there is also a rumor of a snow storm coming for tomorrow night. That would be a change of scenery for Upstate NY this year. We have had roughly half of the average snowfall so far this winter.I am being lazy today. I do plan on getting my walk in, but I have to be to work at midnight, so I have to nap at some point.

Yesterday was a productive day. Nutmeg got her bath and trim. She looks much better and smells better too.

Terry and I also went to see "The Vow", I really liked it and I was glad I went to see it in theatres. The ending was not exactly what I expected, but not everything in life is. I think I may read the book now, I think it will be different from what I have read about the actually couple the movie is based on.

I made Chicken Fajitas for dinner last night but they were not that great looking so I did not take a picture. They tasted good though. While I was making dinner I noticed something odd...

How did she fit under there? Watching her get out was interesting, she did manage to squeeze out of the tight spot.

Tim did enjoy his presents I got him :)

I will share the "52 Reasons I Love You" project this week sometime. It was easy to make and Tim enjoyed it.

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The Cake Pops

It was definitely a learning experience. I made the cake batter from the recipe in the book that came with the cake pop maker. It was super easy to make. I made the batter and then I plugged the machine in. The machine took about 5-10 minutes to warm up enough for the ready light to turn on. I used a small scooper from Pampered Chef to load the batter into the machine. They took approximately 5-6 minutes to cook just like the directions said.

I used some of the helpful hints in the directions, I let the cake balls cool completely then I put them in the fridge so they would be easier to dip in the melted chocolate. For the coating I used melted vanilla chips. I had some bags of chocolate chips that I had gotten when they were on sale so I decided to use those. To melt them I used my Fondue Pot because I figure it would keep the coating melted and easy to use. The most time consuming part was the coating.

I decided to get a little creative and put a few in a vase. They were delicious and Tim could not stop eating them. He enjoyed them and I was very pleased that they came out so well. I would recommend this machine to others. I thought it was easy to use and fun to make :)

2.14.2012

I love Valentine's Day, I know most people think that it is just a Hallmark holiday, but I use it as a day to show my love me my husband :) I do not expect anything from Tim because he is in the group of people that thinks it is just a money maker holiday. I am going to make a delicious dinner that I will share later. I keep seeing the commercial for the Fajita seasoning in a packet and I wanted to try it. Tonight we are going to try it and I will let you know how it is. I am also making cake-pops. My mom got me a cake pop maker for Christmas and I am finally going to try it out tonight. I will also show you how that turns out, I am hoping it is as easy as it looks.

I started getting sad this morning when I was thinking about past Valentine's Days. When my dad and I were close he used to get me flowers for Valentine's Day. I loved them. I love getting flowers and I found it so sweet he always thought of me.

I had an OB check up today. My blood pressure was great! But I have to go to a neurologist for an exam. I told the midwife that I have been having headaches for the last week and she wants to make sure nothing it wrong. I know it is good to make sure it is nothing, but ugh I hate going to the doctor's. We also made an ultrasound appointment for next month. I am very excited to see if they can tell the sex of the baby. I still do not feel pregnant, I am not showing yet and I am so ready to. I want something to show for the headaches and the random bouts of nausea.

I will make sure I check in with an update on dinner and the cake pops later. I am off to see "The Vow" with Terry today :) Nutmeg also has an appointment for a much needed bath.

2.11.2012

I like doing these "weekend thoughts" entries. I am able to take random thoughts and put them in one blog entry. I hope you all like them... if there is a "you all" out there...

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Valentine's Day is Tuesday and I cannot wait. I have been working on some things for Tim. I will share what I made him after Tuesday just in case someone actually reads this and he finds out early. I am also making a surprise dinner with desert for him. I am such a good wife J

I have organized all of my rescue squad stuff this weekend. I am so proud. I usually say "I will get to it later." I am all caught up and ready for the next batch of mail to come in. I tend to get behind sometimes with the organization and filing of things and I get a pile that is out of control. Oops.

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There are days I wish I could be like my animals and just be lazy. That is the life. The other night Tim and I were watching television on one couch and the cat was sound asleep all stretched out on the other couch. We also discovered that Scribbles has been eating A LOT of food. We both filled her dish one day (Tim in the morning and me when I got home from work in the afternoon) and did not know it. Scribbles just gobbled it all up.

************************I really want to see "The Vow." It has been a while since I have actually wanted to go to the movie theatre and see a movie, but this one has me hooked. Last week was a last minute decision to go to the movies I was not waiting for that one to come out like this one. I love that it is a true story. I saw the book in Target last week and it was full of pictures of the actual couple. I have seen that it does not end the way you expect, but I don't mind I just want to see it.